- rally a nervous disease, and plays curious freaks. A
young lady, for instance, a teacher in one of our public schools, lost her voice daily when school closed, but it always came back to her the next morning when the school opened. Another conversed without difficulty, in her natural voice, from the time she rose in the morning until noon. But as soon as the clock struck twelve, she could not make a sound above a whisper until the next morning. We had under our care a young man, who for seven months had not spoken aloud. We asked him one day to tell the servant to bring some water. Without thinking what he was doing, he called loudly in his natural voice, and had no trouble in using it afterwards.
Herodotus, the Greek historian, tells this story of Crœsus, King of Lydia. Fortune had blessed him with wide lands, untold riches, and an accomplished son, but had withheld from the latter the gift of speech above a whisper. Crœsus called in the wise men and the physicians, and when they failed, finally appealed to the gods themselves. He sent rich gifts to the far-famed oracle of Delphi, and asked that his son might speak aloud. The seeress, gazing with prophetic eye into the future, returned this answer:—
"Wide ruling Lydian, in thy wishes wild,
Ask not to hear the accents of thy child;
Far better is his silence for thy peace,
And sad will be the day when that shall cease."
